infonet-economy

The decision not to launch negotiations in the WTO on three of the Singapore Issues in the so-called July 2004 package provides an opportunity to revisit the knowledge base upon which proposals for further international collective action may be drawn. This paper examines the available evidence on public procurement practices in developing countries that could be relevant to further…

Using data of Swiss referenda from 1981 to 1999, this paper presents new empirical results which allow us to discriminate better between the decision and mobilisation hypotheses of electoral participation. First, theoretical considerations which lead to these hypotheses are presented as well as the theory of expressive voting, and a survey of the available empirical evidence is given…

Mit dem Sammelband «Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik - Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. René L. Frey» wird eine akademische Persönlichkeit geehrt,die es in ihrem über 30-jährigen Wirken an der Universität Basel verstanden hat, Brücken zwischen volkswirtschaftlicher Forschung, Beratung und Lehre und damit zwischen Theorie und Praxis zu bauen. Die nebst einem Vorwort von…

In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future…

In recent years, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has come under sustained attack from many academics and other observers. Many of the arguments employed in this attack are found in Professor Morrissey's paper and the purpose of this comment is to critically examine them. Professor Morrissey's principal argument is that the likelihood of successfully completing…

In this study the effects of various types of rehabilitation programmes on labour market out-comes are estimated. A main feature of this study is that it jointly evaluates multiple treat-ments by nonparametric matching estimators. The study is based on a large sample of per-sons in western Sweden who are long-term sick and could participate in rehabilitation pro-grammes. Our results…

This paper reviews the main identification and estimation strategies for microeconometric policy evaluation. Particular emphasis is laid on evaluating policies consisting of multiple programmes, which is of high relevance in practice. For example, active labour market policies may consist of different training programmes, employment programmes and wage subsidies. Similarly, sickness…